A. T. Pratt’s work redefines the idea of tactile comics. Take today’s example, Big Matinee Comics, which includes layer after layer of pop-up, foldout, concertina effect and detachable elements. It’s unlike anything I have ever quite seen in the medium and, of course, it goes without saying that I have been doing this comics commentary thing for quite a while. This is experimental comics at its most idiosyncratic, and the type of practice that would entirely defy digital reproduction.
Big Apple Matinee is a difficult comic to describe. It’s part tour of New York City iconography, part Broadway musical homage, and part alt comics absurdist fantasy, as Pratt takes us around the sights of NYC with a lyrical “musical” accompaniment. Throughout there’s a continual play on the apple theme; a motif that becomes ever more invitingly ridiculous in delivery, leading up to a kind of fruity kaiju finale with the Statue of Liberty as valiant defender of her home turf.
My Apple Matinee is split into three acts with each comprising its own foldable section. Working out reading order is half the fun as this minicomic reveals tactile compartment upon compartment. Pratt’s “pages” are absolutely crammed with detail and lively, frantic cartooning that pulls the reader into their frenzied illustrations. This is less narrative and more stream-of-consciousness but it’s all the more engaging for its abandonment of strict linear storytelling and embrace of a succession of weird and quite wonderful imagery.
A remarkable comics experience. It’s always a delight to be reminded that we have barely scratched the surface of everything that comics can be. If you love the form then you simply have to check out A. T. Pratt’s Big Apple Matinee.
A. T. Pratt • Self-published, $15.00
Review by Andy Oliver
